Merchants favor extending Biketoberfest to 10 days

Sunday

Oct 21, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Some area business owners think, with the economy still weak, the event isn't long enough.

JEFFREY CASSADYBUSINESS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — Biketoberfest, which concludes tonight, provides area hotels, stores and restaurants each year with a jolt of business as the region's slow tourist season begins. The four-day annual event attracts an estimated 100,000 motorcycle enthusiasts. Some area business owners think, with the economy still weak, the event isn't long enough. “Businesses are dropping like flies,” said Mark Robertson, owner of Beach Photo at 604 Main St. “Let's try to save the ones we have. Wave the Daytona Beach flag. Say, ‘Come on down. You're welcome. Bring your wallet.' ” Business people such as Robertson think that extending Biketoberfest to 10 days, like Bike Week in March, would provide a much-needed economic boost for Main Street, which serves as ground zero for both annual events. This is especially important because Biketoberfest occurs during the Daytona Beach's slow fall season. Biketoberfest, unlike Bike Week, primarily draws visitors from the Southeast. Proponents of extending the fall event believe doing so would increase its draw to a much wider area. Bike Week draws an estimated half a million visitors from throughout the country.The Biketoberfest Development Committee, which oversees the event, decided in July to wait until next year to petition the Halifax Area Advertising Authority board and Daytona Beach City Commission to have the event extended from four days to 10. The tourism ad authority uses bed tax revenues collected by the county from local hotels and short-term rental properties to advertise the area as a tourist destination. The ad authority oversees the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, which started Biketoberfest 20 years ago to promote business during the slow season.

Biketoberfest has been extended before. The convention bureau extended the event to 10 days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and also immediately following the 2004 hurricanes. Both times, attendance held steady, but the extra days failed to attract many additional visitors, said Janet Kersey, managing director of the Museum Store at Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona Harley-Davidson. Kersey, a former CEO of the convention and visitors bureau, spearheaded the effort to create Biketoberfest in 1992 shortly after joining the bureau staff as director of tourism events. Kersey attributed the Sept. 11 attacks and the hurricanes as the reasons for why the extended Biketoberfests those years did not draw significantly larger numbers of visitors. Rather than view the extensions those years as failures, she said she believes they actually should be viewed as successes. Had the event not been extended those two years, “we could have actually seen attendance drop,” Kersey said. “(The disasters) could have really devastated us.” Also hampering efforts to draw larger numbers of visitors in 2001 and 2004 was the last-minute decision by the city to approve extending Biketoberfest in each of those years, Kersey said. As a result, the convention and visitors bureau only had a few weeks to publicize the extension, as opposed to several months, which she and other area tourism officials say is needed in order to effectively get the word out. The possibility of a longer Biketoberfest has generated some pushback from some area residents. “It's a noisy event,” said Ferd Neves, president of the Seabreeze University Neighborhood Watch, which represents residents who live between Seabreeze and University boulevards on the city's beachside. Neves said he enjoys the event and appreciates its economic benefits, but he thinks Biketoberfest should be pared back, not expanded. “It's not the kind of tourism we think the city should be pursuing,” Neves said. “We would like to see something more family-friendly.” Biketoberfest — with the noise and congestion it brings — creates a burden for beachside residents, Neves said, though he added that good police work has made the event less intrusive in recent years. “We don't go out as much (during the event),” Neves said. “We don't go to restaurants we know will be jammed.” However, Frank Heckman, chairman of another group of area residents called Beachside Neighborhood Watch, said the noise and congestion are tolerable and the economic benefits Biketoberfest brings make the inconveniences bearable. Heckman's group supports extending the event. “I like the event,” Heckman said. “We have nothing in store that can replace it. Main Street is dead without bike events. We weigh the noise against the good (Biketoberfest) does for the community. “Overall, it's a win-win for most people,” Heckman said of the idea of extending Biketoberfest. To some business people, those jammed restaurants and shops during a time of year when business is otherwise slow is a good reason for extending the event. “Anything that drives more people to the area is a good idea,” said Jason Reader, general manager of the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort on Atlantic Avenue. “I can be sympathetic toward the noise complaints, but I think what most people can agree on is that an increase in tourism to the area is needed. We spend millions on (the ad authority). If we have something successful that we can expand upon, that's part of the mission.” Reader said the 744-room Hilton — the Volusia-Flagler area's largest hotel — typically sells out during Biketoberfest. But Pam Woods, a city commissioner, believes the economic boost Biketoberfest brings is short-lived. She said Main Street clears out after the event ends, regardless of how long it is. “I believe it will be dead until we change what we're doing,” Woods said of Main Street, adding that itinerant vending — i.e., the temporary street merchants who set up booths on Main Street just for Biketoberfest and Bike Week — is not a viable way to encourage long-term economic growth. “If you look at the areas that don't do itinerant vending, they're doing better,” she said.